ASTONISHING HOLDEN SANDMAN RESTORATION!
BELIEVE IT or not, this is an HX Holden Sandman panelvan! “It’s a childhood dream!” chuckles owner Ty of the Sandman project he bought four years ago. “I had one when I was 18 or 19 and I’ve always wanted another one. I’m a big fan of the green ones so when this came up for sale, I grabbed it!”
When delivered as a just-about complete (but unregistered) vehicle to Pro Street Restorations in NSW’s Hunter Valley, there were obvious bubbles in the usual HQ-WB Holden rust areas. A closer inspection by Pro Street’s Greg ‘Beach’ Ball revealed more rust and behind-the-scenes problems. The decision was made to largely disassemble the Sandman, spot-weld by spot-weld, to reveal all the problems before the car was media-stripped to bare steel by Imperial Blasting.
The complete restoration will be achieved using a mixture of original, secondhand, hand-fabricated, NOS (new old stock) and reproduction panels including a Rare Spares front plenum panel and the company’s recent ly launched reproduction van/ute rear quarterpanels. Mechanically, t he car will reta in its orig inal, but completely refreshed factor y V8 driveline.
“I a lready rea lise t hat wit h a ll t he panel work and a l l t he litt le details we need to get it spot-on orig inal, it’s going to be close to a hundred grand, and might be worth $70K when it’s finished,” says Ty wit h another laugh. “I a lready have a few cars so I understand t he effort and costs involved.
“But t hings like t his – I’m not doing it for resa le ; I’m doing it because I want to.”
It’s intended t hat t he restored V8 Sandman will be cruising the NSW coast look ing for beach babes by summer 2019.